


A Beating Heart

by Averia



Series: Dick Rare Pair Challenge Year Two [4]
Category: Outsiders (Comics), Titans (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Stream of Consciousness, Survivor Guilt, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:00:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29240223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Averia/pseuds/Averia
Summary: There is a smile on her face. Dick isn't sure whether it's supposed to be a joke or not.Maybe a little bit of both. That's always what it is, isn't it? It’s how he coped with Bruce.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Indigo (DCU), Dick Grayson & Teen Titans
Series: Dick Rare Pair Challenge Year Two [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2004466
Kudos: 14
Collections: Dick Grayson Rare Pair Challenge





	A Beating Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the January/December Theme of the Dick Rare Pair Challenge.  
> Probably doesn't make a lot of sense to the people who have never heard of Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day and Roy's & Dick's Outsiders team.

Roy was naive to think this would work. That they would work. A team made of nobodies, the forgotten, and the jaded. And Dick doesn't want this team to work. He is so sick of being on a team. Fighting alone is better. Licking his wounds alone is better. Isn't that what Bruce has tried to teach him ever since his first night as Robin?

There are so many people he has lost over the years. Their words and actions he will never forget. Lilith was a bright, chaotic light that formed the Titans in ways few people have and ever will. She was always there when they needed her. Like a spirit, a true omen. 

It's easier to think of her than to think of Donna. 

If he were better, a little faster, she wouldn't be dead. She almost had the robot. Almost.

It's so often _almost_.

Dick forces himself to stay calm. _One. Two. Three._ Succeeds. It changes nothing. He is a second away from lashing out. Dick isn't sure if Roy knows - if he can see it - because, for all their friendship, Roy does not understand him the way Donna did. Donna and he have been together since the beginning. They have never parted ways.

She was with him, and he was with her, even when Wally and Roy and Garth weren't.

His eyes drift to the organic robot that started it all. It looks like a girl. It has a name. Vic and Roy say _it_ is a _she_. Her name is Indigo. Dick doesn't want her to have a name. Doesn't want her to be a _she_. She is the reason that two of his friends are dead. She could have slain so many of them. Nearly did.

Tim could have been among the dead. One more little brother gone.

She is a ticking time-bomb, Batman would say, and Dick hates just thinking about Bruce, hates thinking _like_ Bruce. His resentment doesn’t change the fact.

Dick doesn't want to care about this makeshift team, and he isn't supposed to. Roy said he didn't need to, that they could be like the League (but since when is that supposed to be _their_ goal?) The truth is that he already regards them as more than a squad of misfits. 

_(_ I can be a _perfect_ soldier, she said.)

The words make his stomach churn. He watches her closely during every fight. 

Perfect. 

Good. 

Soldier.

(How many times has he heard those words?) 

He wants her to be ground into dust and sent to whatever dimension she came from, only he doesn't. He believes in Vic, Vic wouldn't lie about her intentions, and he doesn't want to fail another young girl. Not after Terra, and this time he is old enough to make it right. Or he should be.

The Superman robot killed Donna. Heat vision ripped through her heart. All of them thought it was Clark at first. Even Lilith did, and it cost her dearly. Maybe Indigo is convenient. A faceless machine that he can blame. Because he needs to look at Clark without seeing the monster that murdered two of his teammates, two of his friends, two members of his family. The family he loves more than any other.

"You're doing well," Dick tells her one day. The admission comes easier than he expects. A simple exhale of objectively correct words. Their missions have gone smoothly even if their teamwork is unrefined. Roy will find something major for them to deal with soon. They are ready to grow into the super-heroic force Dick thought (hoped) they would never be.

"Thank you," Indigo responds. The emotions showing on her face appear more natural every day, but some of her expressions still enter an uncanny valley that tickles Dick’s nerves. "When calculating combat action, I take your approval into consideration to archive the best results."

There is a smile on her face. Dick isn't sure whether it's supposed to be a joke or not.

Maybe a little bit of both. That's always what it is, isn't it? It’s how he coped with Bruce.

"Not a bad idea to please the team leader," he admits, trying to summon a grin he only half feels. Right now, it's only the two of them. Grace is out with Anissa to find a new apartment. Roy is meeting with his source and Metamorpho... Dick hasn't kept tabs on him. He isn't that paranoid, but it's strange not to know where he is.

"Just don't get yourself killed because you think you need to appease my moods."

Indigo blinks. Dick doesn't know if she needs to - if she usually does. He didn't intend to say it, but here he is. Indigo is a robot, but Indigo is also a girl. A newcomer, one who can calculate their actions finely and can’t be killed - not in any traditional way -, but still a novice, one of the young.

(She won't die before him. He won’t let her.)

Dick knew his mind would not ever stop screaming _no more_ at him. That's why he didn't want to get involved with another group of heroes. It doesn't matter whether he likes them or not. At the end of the day, they will always be important. 

Dick has trusted all his life.

His teammates are his family, and his family his teammates; ever since the very first time his mother caught his hands mid-air.


End file.
